When those Blessed Hands took up the bread and the cup, He stood in the very shadow of the cross.
In communion when we eat and drink we are carried to Calvary. It is a memorial of His death for us.
What a remarkable supper this is — from two standpoints.
I. THE SIMPLICITY OF ITS FORM
Let your imagination take you into the upper room. See! There is no elaborate ceremony here. A group of men about a table in a borrowed room. Their dress is plain for that is the kind of folks they are. Maybe their hands aren’t washed properly either.
Just bread and a cup. That is all there is to this observance. Men have made it fancy. God made it simple.
Now, who but God would choose such a way to remind us of Himself….of the agony of His Son….of our communion and holy hope of seeing the coming kingdom?
Who but the One who scooped up dust to make man….and the One who bids us be as children if we would enter the kingdom?
He is the One who hung the hope of the whole human race on a single sprout from Jessie’s stump….the One who bids man go to the ant and learn….the One who taught the everlasting Gospel through stories of grain, flowers, birds and even weeds, cooking dough, a lost coin and a worn garment….the One who is willing to be a Father to us….the One who sent men to the straw in a manger to Find His Son and our Savior….the One whose Spirit descended in form as a dove….the One who grappled with our sins in blood and tears on a Roman Cross….
“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things — and the things that are not — to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.” I Corinthians 1:27-29
Woe to those who have too rich an appetite for form in worship! Look again at Jesus in the upper room. This is what our God is like. Jesus Christ is the Son of God! He is far more concerned with the inner order of your heart and your personal life than with the outer order and pomp and art of your worship. Some cry for form and fashion in worship. They must have it to hang onto. They can’t stand by faith; it must be by sight. Their worship style must tingle ear and charm the eye because their spiritual ears are dull of hearing and the eyes of their souls are darkened!
II. SIGNIFICANCE OF ITS ELEMENTS
Though simple, this memorial supper is significant.
Note every word of Luke 22:19. Picture the bread now in His hands. He “broke it…saying, ‘This is my body.'” With His own hands he tore open the loaf. Some hours later those very hands — that very body — was to be bruised and torn for our sins.
There you have the great truth — His body for us. We belong to a race of fallen men. We prove it daily by our sins. But His body was sinless. From the virgin’s womb and the manger to the grave and glory, he kept it without sin.
Later Jesus took up the cup — quite separately from the bread, just as His blood was to be poured out from His body. “This means,” said He, “that a new relationship is being established between God and man. God will accept man and walk with him now — not on the basis of man’s good deeds but on the basis of My blood.”
Long ago God had said of the blood of sacrifice, “I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life,” Leviticus 17:11.
At the Lord’s Table, our Host points to the stains on the rugged cross and says, “This is my blood, which is shed for you.”
Friend, the body and the blood of Christ were for you….but have you made them yours? How? By turning from your sins to Christ and believing that God has forgiven all because of Jesus’ great sacrifice. It satisfied the Father. Certainly it ought to be received by the sinner.
The Supper is simple but wondrous. It is in remembrance of Him.